Babysitter
by File 13
Summary: Two weeks ago, Klarion the Witch Boy reappeared on the Justice League's radar for the first time in months, and in a bad way. What's worse is what he does with the League's proteges. With a monster at his side, and Washington DC in his sights, the job of watching the YJL babies falls on the shoulders of... Red Arrow, who is struggling with his life. Can a bunch of babies help him?
1. Reassurance

Chapter 1

Reassurance

"No."

No way, no how. He refused, point blank. "There is no way on Heaven or Earth that I'm gonna do that."

Ollie gave him a pained look, his grey eyes having a certain fragile quality in them. "Please, Roy, I'm begging you. It should only be for the day, and then I swear we won't ever ask you again."

Roy looked dumbstruck as he turned to Dinah. "Do you honestly expect me to… To _babysit_?"

Dinah's blue eyes were hard, very unlike her fiancée's. She glared at the younger man, all trace of lightheartedness gone. "Yes, I do, actually. As part of the League, you're expected to accept assigned missions. We _can_ make this a required assignment if we have to, or, you can take it through your own free will."

"Free will?" scoffed Roy in angry disbelief. "That's fricken' _blackmail_!"

"I'm still not hearing the confirmatory 'yes' or 'okay'," said Dinah, raising a hand and cupping it around her ear. Roy sighed with defeat, marveling at how much more difficult it was to argue with her… Or any other woman for that matter.

"Fine. I'll do it," he grumbled, defeated. Dinah looked marginally more pleased.

"Good. Like Ollie said, it should only take about a day. It can't take longer than that to fight this thing, can it?" she asked, looking at her fiancée, who was slurping his mal thoughtfully, leaning back in his chair.

"Nah, Clark and Bruce don't think it will, and we can't trust their judgment, then I don't know what."

Roy felt a pang of jealousy and stirred his own malt sulkily.

Roy Harper was a superhero. Granted, he didn't have superpowers, but that didn't mean much. The vigilante Red Arrow was more than a match for most idiots and psychopaths out there. Tall, muscular, and serious, with auburn hair and grey-blue eyes, most passers-by didn't bother him, mostly out of fear. Those who did look back at him with interest were mostly girls.

But six little kids versus a monster who wanted to snack on the Congress building in Washington DC? Roy felt he'd rather take on the monster… Alone… And without any arrows. He thought, at least.

Last week, Klarion the Witch Boy had resurfaced on Justice League radar for the first time in several months, and in a bad way. The first people able to respond were all younger than Roy; friends of his, and members of the Young Justice League. Ms. Martian, Superboy, Artemis, Kid Flash, Aqualad, and Robin had all fought valiantly, but when the dust had settled, Klarion still stood, only now with a monster at his side and six children at his feet.

The Justice League had gotten to the fight in the latter half of the battle, but hadn't been able to do much about the outcome.

So now most of the Young Justice League were five year olds, the power of their youth used to create a monster that wanted to eat the US Capitol. Luckily, Klarion had surfaced somewhere in southern Alaska, and had to cover the ground from there to the East Coast on foot, and that would take quite a long time. Unluckily, that time was almost up, and the League's bast bet to defeat the Witch Boy was to prepare in DC.

"Remind me why you're able to expend me rather than one of the others?" Roy asked his former mentor dryly. Ollie pretended not to hear.

"You guys are gonna hide out in one of the League's more homey caches in Central City. Don't ask why that is, Bruce just told us."

Roy shrugged. "I guess I can live with that. What tine tomorrow?"

"Exactly 7 o'clock AM," said Dinah, "We have to be in DC early to prepare.

"Fine. You gonna tell me the address? There anything I need to bring?"

"We'll e-mail the address to you later, and as for bringing something? All of the patience and courage you can muster."

Roy lay in bed in his apartment that night, staring blankly at the address on his phone as he reflected back on her words. All in all, they weren't very reassuring, he thought wryly before he drifted off into twilight sleep, and dreams of tiny children who tried to consume him alive.


	2. Meet the Very Young Justice League

**A/N Yo, I uploaded Chapter 1 to this, like, four hours ago, and two people are already following it! I'm so happy! So, NOW IT'S TIME FOR CH 2 CUZ I HAVE NO LIFE AND NO SCHOOL TODAY! You finally get a little more YJL action, and not just Black Canary, Green Arrow, and Red Arrow. I keep trying to think how the kids I babysit would act, how I would act if I were 5 (or 3 in Robin's case), and how any other little brat would act Lolz. I might even upload Ch 3 today ^-^.**

 **I do not own YJ (Sad face). I only claim credit for the idea, and if it is in any way similar to anyone else's fanfic I'M** ** _SORRY!_**

Chapter 2

Meet the VERY Young Justice League

The house didn't look like a secret weapons cache for the famed Justice League. It looked… Like a house. It was exactly like the other houses on either side of it, with a large oak tree in front, and a white picket fence surrounding the property. And in actuality, most of the supplies that had been in there previously had been transported to Washington DC for the fight, and had been replaced with things like furniture, hi-tech gadgets, food, and other things five year olds liked and needed. It was essentially just like any other typical middle class American household with young children.

Well, minus the weapons Roy had requested the League leave there for him. Those were just a little bit out of place… Kind of.

He struggled for a moment with the unfamiliar door lock as he entered, and then immediately tripped over one of the untied shoelaces of his Converse. Lying sprawled on the granite tile floor, he took it as confirmation that he would have been better off battling the monster with the rest of the League. However, now resigned to fate, he got back to his feet and started to tour the house.

There were four bedrooms and three bathrooms upstairs, one being the Master. It had a singe king sized bed and dark wood furnishings. There was a flat screen TV facing the bed, and a large and ugly painting (in Roy's opinion) on the East wall. Small leafy plants dominated most empty table surfaces, including dressers and on the TV stand and a large, fake tree stood in the corner of the same wall with the ugly painting.

The other three rooms were relatively similar, though smaller, had bunk beds, no TVs, and the room closest to the stairs was dominated by pink while most other rooms in the house were a dark forest green, The two smaller green bedrooms were connected by a bathroom, and the largest bathroom was right across the hall from them.

Downstairs was a toy room, living room, TV room, and kitchen. There was food in the fridge and pantry ranging from snacks to soup to pasta. There were movies and videogames in the TV room cupboards, toys in the bins, books on the shelves, a fully functional washer and dryer, and cleaning chemicals under the bathroom sink. Roy felt relatively well prepared as he looked outside into the backyard and saw the pool, grill, and bright green lawn.

And now thoroughly bored, he went upstairs again and into the attic, where all of the weapons he had requested were stored. He was only really interested in the arrows and maybe a couple of the bows, but there was a wide variety of other weapons as well, including a few which he didn't know the names of.

He could hear the doorbell ring even while in the attic due to the silence of the house, though it was very muffled. He hurriedly left the attic, then realized he had brought a bow and quiver full of arrows with him. He paused only to stash them unceremoniously in a closet at the foot of the stairs, and continued to run to the door, checking his watch at the same time.

7 o'clock, on the dot.

The person on the other side of the door, who turned out to be Dinah, started rapping their knuckles on the door before Roy could finally open the door.

Being either more patient this morning, or more nervous, she didn't remark on his delay on getting to the door.

"Ollie's going to be here in a minute," she said, stepping over the threshold and closing the door behind her. "He has the kids. I just came ahead to give you the instructions."

Roy nodded mutely and followed her into the kitchen. She sat down at the small wood dining table and took a small leather notebook out of her blue leather jacket and handed it to him. "That's got everything you need to know in it. We asked the YJ's parents and mentors about specifications, just in case. It's just little things like if Wally breaks rules to lock him in a room, or that Artemis won't eat graham crackers for whatever reason. And Bruce told me that bedtime for Dick 8:32 PM. He was _very_ specific about that time," she added with a grin that didn't quite hide the worry in her eyes.

Roy nodded again, but before he could ask anything else, the doorbell rang.

And rang.

And rang.

Now both extremely confused, Roy and Dinah returned to the from entrance hall and looked out the window by the front door. There on the welcoming mat was a small boy with a splash of freckles, red hair, and emerald green eyes, pressing the doorbell so fast, his hand had literally become a blur. He was so small, he had to stand on his toes to reach the bell, but that didn't discourage him in the slightest. In fact, a wide smile was plastered all over Wally's face as he pressed that little button.

Looking out into the street, Roy saw Ollie unloading four more children out of a copper Suburban. There was a dark skinned boy with closely cropped blonde hair, iron grey eyes, and a red turtleneck sweater and black pants standing next to a little girl with long blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail, dark grey eyes, a white blouse with a flower and denim shorts, and a grouchy expression. An amber eyed and auburn haired Martian girl in a pink skirt and white blouse was tugging forcefully on the back of Ollie's jacket and mouthing words Roy couldn't hear.

Standing beside her was a little boy in a black shirt with a red Superman shield and jeans that was staring right _at_ Roy with narrowed sky blue eyes, his moody scowl half hidden by messy black hair. Ollie finally turned around, and Roy saw at last what he had been so busy with in the door of the car. He was holding a tiny boy younger than the rest with long fluffy black hair, a red and black hoodie, black yoga pants, and wide sapphire blue eyes, leaning his head sweetly on Ollie's shoulder and sucking his thumb.

Eyes wide, Roy swung the door open. Wally's hand gradually slowed, and eventually stopped altogether, his eyes sliding tremulously, comically, from Roy's feet all the way up to his face. After staring with a petrified expression for several seconds, he sped away, a faint streak of lightning, before reappearing behind Ollie's legs, terrified.

The Young Justice League members were technically the same people they had been before Klarion's transformation, and even retained some of their training and knowledge, and, more importantly, their skills. But they had returned to a more childlike state of mind. Put simply, their past, older selves, was more instinct, and they would otherwise act just like any other five year olds would.

And naturally, a five year old Wally West would be terrified of a tall, 19 year old man whom he had no memory of.

Roy's wild-eyed expression probably hadn't helped much either.

Roy, of course, had not seen his face, but that didn't matter. Ollie kneeled down - somewhat off balance since he was holding a tiny Richard in his right arm- and muttered something to Wally with a smirk. Artemis made a snide remark in a high pitched, five-year-old voice, and Wally made and sharp retort right back.

Roy stood, dumbstruck, not even hearing Artemis and Wally arguing, as the gravity of the situation fell fully upon him for the first time. These six _little kids_ were some of his best friends, a few of whom he'd known his entire career as both Speedy and as Red Arrow… And they were _little kids_ , the youngest of which was _three fricken' years old_!

You could only imagine the awkwardness of the situation.

Dinah had stepped past Roy and over Kaldur'ahm, who was watching Artemis and Wally's fight escalate with wide eyes, and had taken Dick from Ollie's arms since he was busy trying to break up said fight.

"I've gone crazy. I have gone incurably insane and accepted this stinkin' assignment to babysit super babies," Roy muttered under his breath, shaking his head in disbelief. He looked at Dinah, trying to catch her gaze, but she was bust shouting at her fiancée for picking Artemis up by the back of her shirt and shaking her. But Dick was watching him with a curious expression on his face, his sapphire blue eyes oddly clear and intelligent as he looked at the older man.

The few times Roy had seen his friend without his domino mask on, those eyes had always been a bit unnerving to him, almost like they were staring past his outer layer and in deeper, like Superman's or Conner's when they were using X-ray vision. And his eyes were always so… Shielded on those occasions, he couldn't even tell what was going on inside Dick's mind.

This three year old version of Dick Grayson was no different. So, Roy looked away.

Getting the kids into the house and TV room was like herding cats. At any one point, at least one of them could be found digging in the dirt, picking dandelions in the grass, watching a big red beetle cross the porch, or trying to reach the pretty jeweled box on the coffee table. Roy's resolve had already almost been depleted before they got all of the five year olds into the living room. Dick stayed quiet most of the time before mysteriously ending up on top of the fridge, eating a candy bar. When all six were, at long last, in the TV room, Roy glared daggers at them, and ordered them to stay as if they were dogs.

Roy, Dinah, and Ollie all spoke in soft voices in the entrance hall, Dinah giving the young man a few more whispered instructions, and Ollie handing him a tightly rolled wad of money. Roy raised his eyebrow and lifted the bills to eyelevel in a silent question.

"Anything you need to buy," said Ollie without preamble. "That should cover it. But the ones are for the kids," he added with a sly smile.

"What?" asked Roy, confused. "How?"

"Nothing like a little money to bribe little kids," said Ollie with a wink. "But only use it as a last resort, okay. We don't need little misers running around, right?"

Roy nodded in understanding. "You guys have any idea how long I'm gonna be babysitting?"

"As long as we need you to," said Dinah with a slight frown. "We shouldn't be more than a day, but we're not sure. The monster had stockpiled more power than we expected. Roy… Thank you for doing this. We know you didn't want to, but I can't tell you how much help this is for us - to the entire League."

Roy shrugged, and Dinah hugged him. Ollie clapped his hand on his shoulder. "We're leaving that Suburban here, just in case you go somewhere, got it?" he said, handing his former protégé a pair of car keys, his voice returning to its normal volume.

"Yeah, okay," nodded Roy, a little sullenly. He hesitated. "Get in a few good hits for me, okay?"

"Good luck, Roy.

"You too."

 **A/N Hey, thanks to pegasusofnight and glynrh19 for following this story!**


	3. Trials

**A/N Yo guys! Still got no life! BUT I did make some cover art! Yeah, it looks weird, but Chapter 4 should clear us why it is like... how it is. Lolz. This has a lot of Roy getting to know the team babies. I thought it was really good, but that's up to you guys!**

 **I do not own YJ or any other characters connected to DC universe. I claim only credit to the story, and any similarities to any other FanFics is purely coincidental!**

 **Enjoy! 3**

Chapter 3

Trials

As soon as Roy returned to the TV room, he knew that something was wrong. The biggest tell-tale sign was that none of the YJL babies were there anymore.

Panicking, Roy ran into the adjoining toy room. M'gann was sitting amidst a tiny but very detailed city of building blocks, and was playing with a few dolls, a vacant smile on her face. Conner was sitting with his back to the door in front of the bookshelves, reading a giant picture book about Superman. Roy gave an inward sigh of relief. At least these two weren't causing trouble.

No the trouble would probably come from Artemis or Wally. Roy closed his eyes.

 _If I were Wally_ , he thought, _where would I hide_?

The answer came to him, and he started off. If he were Wally he'd hide in…

Wally looked at him guiltily as Roy opened the pantry door, his mouth and small hands crammed with licorice. Roy wasn't _quite_ sure how to react, since he knew that Wally needed to eat to keep his powers working right, but he hadn't asked Roy for food, and he certainly hadn't asked for candy of any sort. He compromised by taking the licorice and replacing it with a bowl of goldfish crackers.

Wally perked up immediately and zoomed off into the small toy room with Conner and M'gann. Roy sighed again in relief. One minor crisis averted, now he just needed to find the other three YJL babies.

It turned out Kaldur was in the downstairs bathtub, submerged in the water. The cream colored tile floor was flooded with water that had spilled over the edge of the tub as it was filled and Kaldur splashed around. Roy had no idea where the real live goldfish had come from. Kaldur was watching Roy from under the water, his gills opening and closing rhythmically as water passed through them.

"Uh, hey Aquala- I mean, Kaldur," said Roy awkwardly, bracing his arms on the edge of the tub and looking down. Out of the entire YJL, Kaldur seemed to be the most mature out of the rest, as well as being their team leader. The tiny Kaldur poked his head up out of the tub, spilling water all over the sleeves of Roy's hoodie. "Uh, do you want to come out of there?"

Kaldur glowered darkly at Roy in a definite _no_. Roy rolled his eyes and huffed as Kaldur dipped back below the surface in a flurry of bubbles.

A sudden crash, a tumbling, and an anguished, drawn out scream from the toy room. " _ROOOOYYY_!"

Roy scrambled to his feet, slipping and sliding in the already present water as well as the fresh wave as Kaldur surfaced again in interest. The little screamer had been M'gann. Wally had apparently hidden behind one of her more massive block towers and exploded through it, pelting her with fishy crackers. Conner had caught now sobbing Wally in an arm lock and was shouting at him in a typical five-year-old voice, trying to get him to apologize to an equally tearful M'gann.

" _Conner_!" shouted Roy over all of the five year old screaming, somewhat flustered. The tiny clone of Superman looked up in mild shock and dropped Wally on the ground. Taking advantage of Conner's distraction, Wally sped over to hide behind Roy's legs, followed closely by his trademark streak of faint lightning.

" _Roy_!" howled M'gann, pointing a dramatic, accusing finger at Wally, who had buried his face behind Roy's knees and wrapped his little arms all the way around. "Roy, Wally broke my castle! And he throwed fishies at me!"

"Alright, everyone be quiet!" Roy barked, and, with much sniffing and glaring, the room fell silent. "Okay. Firstly, Wally, why the heck would you ever do something like that?"

"Thought she would laugh," mumbled Wally shamefacedly. His voice was only just discernible; since he had moved his face just enough so he could be understood. Roy opened his mouth to chastise, then stopped and tried to see how this sort of thing would have appealed to himself at age five. He shook his head and decided to move to more pressing matters at hand, namely the still missing Dick and Artemis.

"Look, have any of you guys seen the others?" he asked, squatting so that he was on the same level as these small children. Wally looked up from the back of Roy's jacket in interest.

"Kal's in the bathtub," said Conner, his clear sky blue eyes brightening.

"Yeah, I know he is," nodded Roy unconsciously pushing the sleeves of his wet jacket up his arms. "But we still can't find Dick or Artemis."

The others shook their heads, and Roy sighed in exasperation. "Okay, we're gonna have to find them both, quick. Wally, go get Kaldur out of the bathtub _without causing a tsunami_ , and both of you start looking. Conner and M'gann, you start looking right now, got it?"

The three little kids all nodded enthusiastically, wide eyes bright. They scattered suddenly, Wally shooting off for the bathroom, Conner to the kitchen and M'gann to the upstairs bedrooms. Wally suddenly reappeared next to Roy, looking confused.

"What do we get if we win?" he asked, tilting his head to the side. Now it was Roy's turn to be confused.

"Win?" he asked. "Win wha-?"

Oh. They all thought it was a game. "Oh, uh, I dunno. Maybe we'll do something cool, like, get pizza? I dunno, I-I…"

A sly smile had spread slowly across Wally's face as Roy had said "pizza". "No, I didn't mean-" Roy tried to say, but the damage was already done, and Wally was back to trying to bribe Kaldur out of the tub.

Cursing himself silently for his blunder, Roy set off up the stairs to start looking.

M'gann had been immediately distracted in the pink bedroom by the tiny blue flowers in the planters. She was watering them with a plastic toy watering can and chattering in five year old nonsense, so Roy was essentially alone in his search for the two missing YJL members up here.

A very quiet sniff caught his attention.

Stepping lightly, he strode across the hallway to a little closet he knew was filled with exactly seven coats and jackets with stylized symbols just like his and YJLs' uniforms, and a few board games. He had actually been quite amused by them when he had first opened the door, and suspected the Batman had something to do with them.

He slowly opened the door and looked around. Nothing. But the sniffing had become more pronounced, so, on a hunch, he looked down.

Dick was sitting in the far back corner, curled into a little ball in the dark, his shoulders shaking. He didn't move when Roy opened the door. The red haired man squatted down and fixed the tiny three year old with a concerned gaze.

"I miss Batman…" came a tiny whisper.

Roy did not know how to answer that. He reached forward and lifted Dick up. He was so ridiculously light, it wasn't even funny; he could have been a baby. But he held the little boy in a hug until he stopped crying, trying to ignore the snot now all over his shoulder.

When Dick had called down enough, Roy stood, holding him in his left arm. Another crash, followed almost immediately by even more shouting than before, goaded him to get downstairs as fast as he could.

Wally had found Artemis, and the two were now fighting again, both in a vicious game of tug-and-war with what Roy realized was one of the arrows he had taken from the attic and stored in the downstairs closet. Their screams had reached such a loudness and pitch, only bats would be able to hear it soon.

"LET IT GO ARTI!"

"GIVE IT _BACK_ WALLY, YA BIG _JERK FACE_!"

"ROY DIDN'T SAY YOU COULD PLAY WITH ARROWS!"

"HE DIDN'T SAY _YOU_ COULD EAT MnMs!"

Roy hurriedly set Richard down and ran to take the arrow from the hands of the two kids.

Much later, he sat tensely at the small wood table watching as half dozen children happily ate some pizza that the delivery guy had brought only a few minutes before with his arms tightly folded. There was a pile of forks and spoons next to him as Wally, Kaldur, Artemis, Conner, and M'gann had tried to set the table. At that point, Dick had tugged on the bottom of Roy's jacket as told him a solemn, matter-of-fact three-year-old voice, "You don't eat pizza with forks and spoons."

Roy chuckled. "You know that, and I know that, but nobody bothered to tell them, huh?"

Dick's steady sapphire blue eyes had brightened in a huge grin at that. Now he was sitting at the table with tears trickling down his cheeks. Someone, probably Wally, had said something to do with a baseball bat, and the word "bat" had set the youngest YJL baby off again.

A snippet of one of the more popular songs on the radio suddenly broke the silence, and Roy jumped before remembering that that was his ringtone. He looked down at the caller ID and saw that it was Black Canary.

"Guys, I'll be right back. _Stay_. _Here_ ," he added the last two words as a command before standing up and walking into the front living room.

"Red Arrow," he said in an undertone. "What's up, Canary?"

"Roy, this battle isn't going well," said Dinah's voice darkly from the other side of the phone connection. "Have you seen the news at all?"

"No," admitted Roy, his stomach suddenly churning. "No, I've been chasing down five year olds all day. Are you sure you don't want me to come in?"

"No. Just the opposite in fact," said Dinah.

"What do you mean?"

"Bat's and Superman's initial guesses on the difficulty of this thing were a bit off. We… _May_ need you to watch our little friends for more than just today."

" _What_?" burst out Roy in indignation. "Canary, do you _honestly_ expect for me to just sit around back here and play den mother?"

"Yes I do, Roy."

In the back of his mind he remembered how similar this conversation was to the one he had with her and Ollie yesterday. But the rest of his mind was otherwise occupied. This was an outrage. Was he truly that expendable? Or was it just that nobody trusted him anymore, after that whole thing about him being a clone created by Cadmus, and a sleeper agent for The Light?

That still hurt.

"Canary, I-" he started.

"No, Roy, I need you to listen," came Black Canary's weary voice. "You might be stuck with those kids for a couple of days. Just deal with it. We will call you in if there's no other way, but act as if there's nothing wrong. I'm sorry, but that's the best we can do, Roy."

" _Fine_. But _swear_ that you'll keep me posted," Roy growled.

"The news still works, you know," joked Dinah. Roy didn't smile, nor did he answer. "Fine. I'll message you the big stuff that the news crews don't get, alright? Happy?"

"Not particularly," muttered Roy truthfully.

"Good. I'll talk to you later."

"Wait! Rob- er, _Dick,_ keeps saying he wants Bats. What the heck am I supposed to do about that?"

There was a lengthy silence on Dinah's end. "I have got no clue," she admitted at last before she hung up, leaving him feeling worse than before.

 **A/N Hey again! Anyway, special shout out time! This goes to PuppyProngs and Celeste621 for following this story, and to Celeste621 for FAVORITING(? I cant spell!) IT! I love you guys! BTW I welcome any reviews and critiques! Ideas? Send them to me and I'll see if I can work it in, cuz I HAVE WRITERS BLOCK!(life is miserable *sob*)**


	4. Forgive Me

**A/N Hey guys! Sorry I haven't posted in a while; it's tough being a Freshy XD IDK about this chapter, it's a little bit short and a little dull, IK, but in Young Justice I just feel like there's some tension between Roy and Artemis even near the end of season 1. Wanted to address it. Yeah, and the ending is stupid too XD Wateves**

 **Welllll, I don't own Young Justice (if I did I would not have canceled it after season 2!), sadly, and I don't own DC comics. I claim only story credit and any similarities to any other fanfics is purely coincidental!**

 **Enjoy (please!)!**

Chapter 4

Forgive Me

"Roy, are you gonna swim with us?"

Roy looked up from his preoccupied state. "Huh?"

Artemis glared at Kaldur was he swam through the pool without floaties, like a fish, which, as an Atlantean, he could be considered. "Forget it, Kal. Roy isn't gonna swim with _babies_. He doesn't _like_ babies."

The six YJL members were swimming in the clear blue pool, though Kaldur was the only one that was allowed in the deep end. Dick wasn't even allowed in the _shallow_ end, so he was splashing happily in the pool deck next to the steps, Wally occasionally swimming over to splash around with him. M'gann had grown gills of her own similar to Kaldur's along the sides of her neck, and Conner was sitting underneath the rock waterfall with a grin.

"What do you mean ' _I don't like babies_?'" he asked listlessly. He hadn't been focused at all for several hours now; Black Canary's conversation with him was still on his mind. But it was mostly the worm of doubt that worked its way into his mind that nobody trusted him.

Nobody trusted him…

In his mind, at least right now, everything was black and white. He was a clone, created by the enemy. Something was wrong with him. His ledger was crimson red, and nobody had any faith in him anymore. He sank into the bleakness of depression a little deeper.

"You treat us like little kids! You sure _hate_ me!"

Artemis's shouts brought him back to his surroundings. She was scowling deeply at Roy. Was it just him, or were her eyes becoming over bright?

"Artemis, I don't hate you," Roy said, confused at her thinking.

" _Yes you do_! You _hate_ me!" she shrieked. She tried to get out of the pool, but tripped over Dick and landed back in the shallow water. Now she was crying, and Dick was crying, and M'gann, with her sweet heart, started crying.

It was almost too much to take.

He was going to _explode_.

He leapt from the lawn chair he had been sitting on and tried to slog his way over through the water to Artemis. Wally and Kaldur were both holding Dick, trying to get him to calm down, and Conner had swam out from under the waterfall to comfort M'gann.

Roy pulled the blonde girl out of the pool by one arm, kicking, writhing, screaming and crying. He grabbed a towel and ran inside, trying to wrap it around the very angry protégé of Green Arrow. He opened the door, heaved Artemis inside, and slammed the door shut.

"What the heck are you talking about ' _I hate you_ ', Artemis?" Roy asked loudly and incredulously as Artemis yanked her small, slippery arm away and started to dry it off with a deep scowl.

"You hate me 'cause Ollie's my teacher now, and 'cause Ollie chose me as soon as you left to become Red Arrow," said Artemis in a growly little voice, her eyes narrowed and red.

Roy was somewhat surprised to hear this. What he had said was true; he didn't hate Artemis, not in the slightest. He was even attracted to her older sister, Jade – who was also known as the assassin Cheshire, which was strange because more often than not, he was working against her.

But Artemis was also correct, in a way. While he did not hate her, he had always felt something strange around her. At first he had thought it was just lingering anger at Green Arrow, whom he had felt angry and betrayed. But even after he had forgiven Ollie, he had still felt this odd sensation. He certainly didn't love her; that would have just been weird. He respected her quite highly, and even enjoyed her company, at least most of the time. So he dwelt in the confusion of this strange emotion. But now he came to a conclusion.

It was _envy_. Jealousy.

She was right.

When he had set out on his own as Red Arrow and Artemis had become Ollie's protégé, he had felt… Replaceable. She had all of his attention and wisdom, or whatever Ollie had since he wasn't really "wise", his support. He had brought the weight of being a solo vigilante upon himself without thinking, but he was _jealous_ of this little girl in front of him.

It was his selfish human nature.

"Artemis, I don't hate you," he said in a gentle voice, and he meant it. "I never hated you. If you thought I did, I'm sorry, but I promise that I don't hate you one little bit…"

Artemis's eyes slowly softened, becoming less narrow. "I don't hate you either Roy…"

This was a surprise. Roy cocked his head to the side.

"You're cool Roy. You can do anything just like Ollie and you know everything. You should hear Ollie talk about you 'cause he does all the time."

"You know what? You're cool too Artemis," grinned Roy. The little blonde archer beamed right back and threw her arms around the young man before bouncing off through the door.

While he marveled at the sudden mood swings of children, he still felt something else, just as odd as his jealously. Or, now that he thought about it, his lack thereof.

He was at _peace_.

Smiling, he stood and walked out the door again. Now was the time, and there were people who still trusted him. _I think I'll go swimming with them now._

 **A/N Hey! Fun time! SUPER special shout out to PuppyProngs, Celeste621, pegasusofnight, and DiAngelo00 for Favoriting my story! You make me so happy! And shout outs to Celeste621, Mireilles3, . , bow-and-arrow-lover, MarissaKeye, wolfchic14, DiAngelo00, mortalathena, and (Lemme check dat email I got** ** _today!)_** **Niiroya for following!**

 **PLEZE remember that comments and ideas are very much welcome as I have writers block, so life is miserable XD, and I wanna know what YOU guys want too! So if you got the time, Say something? ;)**

 **Peace out bros! Loves!**


	5. With Open Arms

**A/N Hey guys! This is a strange chapter, but IT IS NOT THE END! More shall be on the way! But my life sucks right now, so I'm miserable and adjusting to yet ANOTHER new school schedule, meaning I MIGHT not write any new chapters for awhile... MIGHT. But he last part is from a Wonder Woman/Black Canary perspective since my friend wanted a Wonder Woman appearance in here (U happi now u got dis & sleepin tiger, rite?) But yea. *Sigh*. Im tired XD**

 **So, again, I dont own Young Justice or any other DC franchise (unfortunately). I only get credit for the story and any similarities to any other fanfic is a huge coincidence, yadda yadda yadda...**

 **Okay! Enjoy! Pleeze!**

 **JUST DO IT!**

Chapter 5

With Open Arms

Dinah hadn't been joking about bedtime. He and the kids had all settled down to watch a movie at around seven o'clock, and exactly at 8:32, the youngest YJL baby fell asleep. It was almost like he had been knocked out, it was so sudden. One moment he was watching the TV screen with rapt, wide-eyed attention, and the next, his dark head had fallen forward into Roy's lap.

Again, herding all six of them was nearly impossible. Not to mention, he was on his own this time, so it was several times worse. At some point, he had tried to carry all six in his arms up the stairs. At another, Wally, Kaldur, and Dick had all ended up in the Master bedroom, hiding under the faded maroon bedspread and giggling shrilly. Roy would try to go up the stairs and more often than not would find a YJL baby curled up on the steps, falling asleep.

Eventually losing all patience, Roy resorted to his final card. Everyone ended up in his room. Dick was passed out on one of the pillows, breathing softly and wearing some overlarge red jammies. Conner was wearing a white shirt with the red and gold superman's shield and blue pants. Wally was wearing a plain white shirt and green pants. Artemis was wearing a red nightgown. Kaldur was in a black and blue onesie. M'gann had morphed her clothes into a lacy, frilly pink, blue, and white nightgown. The three boys were rolling around on the bed, ruining the covers and barely missing rolling over Dick.

Artemis and M'gann were both petting a large stuffed dog they had brought up from the toy room, cooing softly and petting it.

Roy was tempted to just turn on the TV and lock them in the room for the night, but he knew from experience that no lock would hold half a dozen super babies. Earlier that day, Roy had locked Conner, Wally, and Kaldur into a room as a punishment for breaking a toy M'gann and Artemis had been playing with. Ten minutes later, Wally had sped up to Roy, nose bloody, and saying that Conner had broken the door. This was true, as the handle had been completely torn off, Kaldur was back in the tub, and Conner running around with a small toy Superman and a red blanket around his neck, his mouth full of cookie.

So that option was out.

"What do you guys want to do before we go to bed?" Roy asked wearily, stifling a yawn. The two girls looked up in interest and the boys stopped wrestling. Conner was sitting way too close to Dick now. Roy strode across the room and sat down in the middle of the bed, scooping the tiny three year old to safety. The girls crawled up and sat by the boys in a semi-circle, eyes wide and grinning.

"A game!" said Kaldur excitedly. "Tag, or hide and seek!"

"I want food," said Wally with great lament. They had all eaten warm sandwiches half an hour ago, so Roy was definitely not feeding them again; he had slaved over that oven for an _hour_!

"No," said Roy firmly. Wally looked disappointed, but not too badly.

"A story!" shouted Artemis, right in his ear, grinning eagerly. Ever since the two had talked, she had been much happier and much friendlier, both to him and to the others. He pondered her proposal for a moment. Never having had children or any younger siblings, Roy had found it difficult learning to treat these kids who used to be his friends. He wanted to banter back and forth with them like how any normal teenager would, but that would probably end badly. He didn't know how to pacify them, or what to do for them, or _anything_ at all. But he used to read stories when he was younger, or rather, when the real Roy Harper had been younger, as he just had his memories, but all the same. In those stories, the main character would always read or tell a story to small children, and they would magically calm down and more often than not, fall asleep.

So, he thought he'd give it a stab.

"Alright, fine," he said conversationally. "But what kind of story is the question?"

"One about food!"

"Mythology!"

"Princesses!"

"Food!"

"Superman?"

 _"Potatoes!"_

"Aliens! From _outer space_!"

 _"Shut up!"_ shouted Roy. Dick gave a little start in his sleep. Roy tensed, afraid he had woken the dark haired boy up, but Richard simply shifted slightly before falling back asleep with a tiny sigh.

"Okay, you guys need to chill out," Roy said in a lowered tone after making sure Dick wasn't going to wake up. "Alright? And right after this, we are all going to sleep. Got it?"

The kids all opened their mouths to answer, but Roy cut in again. " _Not. A. Sound_."

Perhaps it was his tone of voice, or maybe it was the expression in his eyes, but each five year old snapped their jaws shut and nodded vigorously, eyes bulging. Roy gave a huge breath. "Okay then… I guess I'll tell you guys a story then; a story about honor and bravery; about an alien princess from outer space, who was rescued by Superman from _evil_ space potatoes."

Two women were walking up the driveway, one dark, and the other fair, both battered and bruised.

"I can't imagine he had much trouble at all," said the dark haired woman. She was tall, stately, and angular, with a golden tiara and cuffs, and wearing a fairly skimpy red, white, and blue uniform. The blonde woman was equally tall, though she looked slightly more approachable. She was wearing a blue leather jacket, a black leotard, and grey tights. Her worn black boots were a bit quieter than the dark woman's red, heeled ones.

"Relax, Diana," said Dinah quietly, stopping and pulling out a key. "I have complete trust in Roy."

"Even after…?" started the Themyscarian, but Dinah stopped her friend with a look.

" _Complete. Trust_ ," she repeated. She turned away and unlocked the front door with a quiet snap.

The two women were at first confused at the empty bedrooms and broken door. Everything else seemed normal; every door and window was locked, the dishwasher was quietly running in the kitchen, and there were a few toys and books scattered around the toy room (which, Dinah and Diana knew used to house several deadly weapons).

"Where could they have gone?" whispered Dinah, opening the door to the pink bedroom. Diana made no sound. " _Diana_?"

There was a small _shh_ , and the blonde woman turned around. Diana was grinning widely and holding the door to the master bedroom open so that a sliver of yellow light shone inside. Dinah stepped across the hall and peered inside. By the dim yellow light filtering in through the door and the silver moonlight through the window, Dinah saw a huge mass lying on the bed, breathing softly.

Roy was at the bottom of the unconscious dog-pile, still wearing his hoodie and jeans and completely covered in children. Under his left arm were Dick, Wally, and Kaldur, all smiling hazily in their sleep and wearing a strange assortment of pajamas that didn't fit any of them, arms around each other, and tiny Richard's around Roy's arm. Artemis was passed out spread-eagled on top of Roy's chest, drooling slightly and mumbling in her sleep. M'gann was lying across Roy's right leg and sucking her thumb, smiling at the same time, and Conner was up by Roy's head, also sucking his thumb contentedly.

"I told you he wouldn't have any trouble," whispered Diana. She didn't see Dinah's smile, but the blonde woman was smiling. She knew. That had been part of the reason she had assigned this mission to one of the newest and least trusted members of the Justice League of America. Roy had been moody, estranged, and… _Sad,_ after discovering that his whole life had been a lie, at least in his young eyes. He thought that nobody in the world would trust him ever again. He had separated himself from those who _did_ trust him in fear of rejection- obsessed himself with finding the "real Roy" as he called his predecessor. He didn't belong, and he needed to connect with his friends and the people who loved him again.

Roy was home, at long last, and received with open arms.

 **A/N Little bit lame, but that's up to you guys XD Special shout-outs to ShootingArrows, Lilyflower221, a-really-angry-sorceress, and YukiGoku'sSister for FAVING this story (Love you guys so much you make my crappy life a little bit happier!)! And... *Drumroll pleze* Shout-outs to ShootingArrows and Lilyflower221 again for following!**

 **Reminder that any and all reviews and critiques are very much welcome, and any fun ideas are welcome as well because I have ARTISTS AND WRITERS BLOCK and that's pretty much all of my life consists of... So I am miserable XD**

 **Thank you! Lovez! Just do it and don't let your dreams be dreams!**

 **Peace out!**


	6. Plans For A Rainy Day

**A/N I don't own YJ or the characters. I only claim ownership to the idea for this story. Any resemblance to any other story, sorry, but I've never read another de-aged fanfiction before, so... Yeah! Enjoy anyway!**

 _Chapter 6_

 _Plans for Today_

And then it was raining.

Pouring, in fact.

Conner and Kaldur both yawned in quick succession of each other, their half-chewed bites of toast almost falling out of their mouths. M'gann was sitting with Dick on the far side of the table, facing the TV so they could see the morning cartoon, mindlessly shoveling food into their mouths, glassy eyes wide and unblinking.

Artemis was slumped over, her nose almost touching the dark wood table with her eyes half closed, and Wally was shoving several fried eggs, slices of bacon, and bites of toast into his mouth with a disgusting energy.

Roy also yawned. Yawns were contagious.

His phone vibrated in his lap and he looked down at the screen. He had turned off the ringer because, after a few times, Dick seemed to somehow realize that these texts were connected to Bats, and start hanging on Roy's arm trying to see it, and when Roy refused to show it to the little kid, he would start to bawl. So, it was best to keep it on vibrate, at the most. The text was from Dinah, and it read, " _nothing new here, not going well. how is it over there_?"

Roy rolled his eyes before answering, wondering about how Dinah could expect anything to have changed in the past ten minutes. " _were fine, BC. think ill take the kids out to do somethin, like a movie r wateves_."

" _ok sounds good. ill ttyl, i gtg. b safe ok?"_

 _"ok"_

Roy slipped the phone into his back pocket and looked back at the kids.

Wally and Dick had disappeared.

"Crap," he groaned. The building pressure of a headache was already forming behind his eyes. Wally had only run into the living room to watch the TV better. Dick on the other hand had found a stapler in a drawer and managed to get a staple stuck in the first layer of his skin so that it didn't hurt, but it was stuck. He just stood there, staring at it. Roy could imagine him thinking, _what the heck is this thing stuck in my finger?_

Roy plucked the little boy up and plopped him back in one of the chairs at the kitchen, pulling the staple out of his finger. Dick just kept staring at the spot, so Roy decided to leave him be.

"Rooooooy? Are we gonna do anything fuuun today?" whined M'gann, who had trotted over to his elbow, a bit of egg stuck to her chin.

"I dunno. What do you guys wanna do? See a movie?" said Roy with disinterest, wiping egg off a now giggling M'gann's face. "Hold still, will ya?"

"LET'S SEE _THAT_ MOVIE!"

Little Kaldur's finger was pointing excitedly at the television which was playing an advertisement for some new kid's movie about a fish. Looking at the ad, Roy was more hesitant than ever about leaving the house. There wasn't anything wrong with the movie, but after dealing with these kids for a day, he wasn't exactly sure that he could handle six _normal_ little kids, let alone little kids who had superpowers, and had to keep them _secret_. Well, four little kids. He wasn't really worried about Dick and Artemis, since they didn't have powers.

Well, he'd deal with what happened as they happened.

"Alright," he said at last. Wally poked his wide-eyed face over the back of the couch, and the other kids all were grinning with almost shameful excitement. "I guess, _if_ you're good, and _only_ if you're good… We'll go to the movies."

 **A/N Wheeee! I have RETURNED my little cuppycakes! Yeah, this is sort of a dumb chapter, but it'll get more interesting as soon as I get back into my groove again lolz. I'm going to ask that you do comment, kk? I love seeing you guys' recations; they make me so happy! And constructive responses are MUCH welcomed too.**

 **See y'alls on the flip side! Go check out some of my other stories while you're at it!**


	7. HIATUS AND POSTPONEMENT (Author's Note)

A/N

Dear loyal readers, even if you aren't loyal and you're just clicking on this story because it's at the top of the feed:

Hiya! How's it going? What? Why haven't I been updating Babysitter like I should have? Well sit down my wee cuppycakes and allow me to tell you a tale.

Actually, how about I tell you a really lame excuse? That sounds like a great idea, Ima do it!

I HAVE NOT GIVEN UP ON BABYSITTER! I'm just going to tell you that outright. Someday, and hopefully someday soon, I will finish it.

But at the moment, it has been put on hold for the foreseeable future. I'm so sorry I have to do it, but I do. Since around the end of the summer (maybe around September or October I think), my ancient laptop went KAPUT. Yep, it was ruined forever and for all eternity; the battery port no longer worked, and it couldn't charge the computer. I knew the day that it would die forever would be coming soon, since I had been having issues for several months before, but I didn't know exactly just when. Well, I shared this certain laptop with two younger siblings, and I got on one day and they had been using it before me. 10%! I couldn't get my files on a flashdrive fast enough! So... Yeah.

I had been working on Babysitter. I had parts of chapters written. But I couldn't bring myself to write it anymore when I knew that there were chapters sitting collecting cyber dust on my dead desktop. So, I didn't update for a long, long time.

Then, lo and behold, a chapter was discovered on my Google Drive! That chapter was posted, then no others.

So... Yeah. Until I can either a) get my computer fixed, or b) somehow or another get my files off the computer and onto a new one, Babysitter will not be updating, and has been INDEFINITELY POSTPONED. I'M SO SORRY!

Another thing is that, however sad it may sound, Young Justice no longer interests me as much as it did, and I've fallen in love with other fandoms (Undertale, back in with Minecraft, Eddsworld for the most part). I've forgotten a LOT of details about YJ that i used to know. It's sad, yes, but true.

LAST THING: As much as I joke about not having a life... I kind of do. I moved almost a year ago with my family of five (plus two dumb dogs, so might as well make it 7) into my grandparents' basement (we just wanted to move, we weren't kicked out or anything.), and the State Government is very VERY slow at getting house plans underway. I'm still in school, I'm in desperate need of some new friends, I've been upset a lot, tempers running high, some of my old friends have been dangerously close to killing themselves and keep creating drama that they just won't let go. When things get said and keep getting said until they're blown out of proportion... *sigh* No me gusta. Do your friends a favor and STOP.

HAPPY THINGS! AHAHAHAHAHAHH ANYWAYS, I'm sorry for my lame excuses! I'm sorry you guys have to wait. I wish you the best, and keep your fingers crossed for an update!

Love

~File_13


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